Despite the unusual comments regarding his martial arts ability Zed Shaws recent rant that railed against the arrogance and immaturity inherent in the Rails community had a great deal of truth. He said a lot thats been needing to be said for some time.
When I first became a fan of Rails 2yrs ago I found it a wonderful breath of fresh air compared to PHP and Python. I especially loved Ruby’s almost artistic and free-form style.
As time went on it became clear the Rails community, and by default, the Ruby community was gathering some great momentum with new users flooding in. Something I was all for until I saw a nasty and sickening turn in the usually friendly attitudes of the Ruby masses.
Ruby has always boasted a freindly and open community of hackers to the envy of Python and it was one of the many things that drew me from my original love affair with the Python camp. As a ‘newbie’ myself I found it easy to ask for help when needed and everyone was very supportive.
Then Rails became big. Really big! With it came arrogance from the ‘old guard’ who’d started on Rails at the same time or before me. People who just a few months earlier were begging for help on the most mundane of issues on the Rails boards and mailing lists were suddenly flaming and attacking new starters in the community.
An elitism developed in the Ruby and Rails communities which was akin to that found in the Mac world and their general derision of the PC community. Left, right and centre Tin Pot Kings proclaimed expertise in this new technology charging extortionate amounts for mediocre work.
After taking off my rose tinted specs I began to notice the Ruby and Rails community was full of fluff.
It’s a shame that Ruby and Rails have suffered the inadequacies and weaknesses of people because they both are great pieces of work.
Unlike Zed I won’t be leaving Rails completely but I will be making sure I don’t get caught up in the mass-hysteria and the pathetic behaviour of many of the high profile members.
Ruby I think has suffered unfairly in all of this. I’m sure Matz never expected Ruby to explode the way it did. As is often the case with hackers they beaver away at something out of a passion and normally it springs into popularity purely by accident. Ruby is a great language and I’ll not stop using it.
The community for both Rails and Ruby need to spend some time reflecting on their collective personality and stop giving the time of day to the egomaniacs bent on filling their wallets and inflating their egos.
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